Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

The Bureau of Reclamation has released Draft Water Banking Criteria for banking Central Valley Project water outside of a contractor’s contract service area. Reclamation developed these criteria to implement water banking as authorized by the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and as allowed by certain federal contracts.

Reclamation recognizes groundwater banking as an important water management tool in optimizing the use of CVP water while addressing groundwater overdraft in certain areas.

These criteria will apply to contractors under contract with Reclamation for water service or repayment, water rights settlement, exchange, or other applicable contracts requesting to bank CVP water outside of their contract service area. These criteria set forth the standards under which Reclamation may approve banking and recovering of CVP water outside of the contractor’s contract service area boundary, while protecting the integrity of the CVP.

Written comments on the criteria must be received by the close of business on June 21

After reviewing the manual snow survey data from the California Department of Water Resources that was provided the week of April 8, the Bureau of Reclamation has determined that due to persistent dry conditions an additional adjustment to the Friant Division allocation is necessary.

In consultation with the Friant Division Contractors and in consideration of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program release schedule, the Friant Division Class 1 water supply allocation is decreased from 55 percent to 50 percent. Class 2 water remains at 0 percent.

Currently, precipitation in the Upper San Joaquin River watershed at Huntington Lake is about 19.7 inches, which is about 53 percent of average for this time of year. Additionally, accumulated natural river flow to date for WY 2013 for the Upper San Joaquin Basin is about 400,000 acre-feet which is about 22 percent of the total water year average of 1.8 million acre-feet, and about 65 percent of the historical average for this date.

The driest January through March on record is causing water supply challenges for much of California, particularly for the Central Valley Project agricultural water service contractors in the western San Joaquin Valley. The Bureau of Reclamation, working closely with the California Department of Water Resources, has implemented several actions to improve water supply conditions south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the greatest extent possible and is preparing to implement certain additional actions in the near future.

Five specific actions are improving CVP water supplies by more than 100,000 acre-feet to support current westside water allocations. Several other actions to augment future water supplies, including water transfers, could total another 200,000 acre-feet. In addition, new rescheduling guidelines implemented by Reclamation this past winter has allowed CVP contractors to carry over 225,000 acre-feet of their 2012 supplies for use in 2013.

“Reclamation is currently working every prudent avenue, with our partner agencies and customers, to deliver water to where it is needed in this critically dry year,” said Mid-Pacific Regional Director David Murillo. “For the long-term, successful completion of the BDCP, including a new diversion and conveyance facility, would have state of the art protections for the benefit of endangered fish species, would help restore some of the natural flow of water through the Delta, and would provide some certainty and stability to California’s water supply.”

The CVP provides water for agricultural, municipal and industrial, and environmental purposes through complex processes, driven by numerous factors, including hydrology, operational limitations, environmental considerations, regulations, court decisions and a changing climate.

Actions that have been included as factors in calculating the current CVP allocation for south-of-Delta water service contractors:

Delta-Mendota Canal Intertie: Use of the Intertie between the Delta-Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct, located in Alameda County, west of Tracy, Calif. The Intertie has been used to improve water supplies by 38,000 acre-feet to date in 2013.

Yuba River Accord: Through agreement with the California Department of Water Resources, a portion of the water made available by the Yuba County Water Agency will add to CVP supplies this summer. After system losses, the CVP will likely receive about 24,000 acre-feet.

CVP Water Use Flexibility: Under a “flexibility” agreement, the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors have used alternative sources of water supply early in the year to delay use of CVP water supplies from the Delta. This potentially provides more Delta water supplies for delivery to CVP water service contractors on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley during the peak irrigation season. About 9,000 acre-feet of water demand is projected to be shifted for user later in the year.

Stanislaus River Fishery Flows: Reclamation is accommodating the release of water from senior water rights holders on the Stanislaus River for fishery benefits, with secondary benefits of improving Delta exports to the CVP and State Water Project. The water would be released from New Melones Reservoir in April and May, and a portion would be diverted for CVP and SWP use. About 30,000 acre-feet will likely be available for supplemental CVP allocation.

Refuge Groundwater Pumping: Groundwater wells in the Grasslands Resource Conservation District and the Grassland Water District will be available to pump additional water. Half of the water pumped will be used to meet refuge Level 2 water demands in lieu of using CVP water, with a like amount of water going back into the CVP yield for allocation to the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The estimated total quantity of pumped groundwater will be about 4,000 acre-feet, making

2,000 acre-feet available to improve CVP supplies.

Reclamation’s actions to augment future water supplies include:

Water Banking: Since 2001, Reclamation has approved 20 requests from CVP contractors to bank CVP water for use in dry years. So far this year, Reclamation has approved the return of 20,000 acre-feet of banked CVP water to south-of-Delta water users for the 2013 water year.

Water Transfers: Reclamation approves the transfer of CVP water and enters into Warren Act contracts for the movement and storage of non-CVP water transfers. Reclamation is evaluating the quantity and timing of water transfer opportunities through the Delta this summer. Transfers allow CVP contractors to augment their CVP allocation. Potential transfers include north-to-south transfers of Yuba River water, estimated at 50,000 acre-feet; east-to-west transfers of 37,000 acre-feet; and San Joaquin River Exchange Contractor Long-Term Transfer Program transfers of about 62,000 acre-feet. Reclamation has approved a south-of-Delta water rights transfer of 12,000 acre-feet and San Joaquin Valley in-basin transfers of 5,620 acre-feet.

Reclamation’s actions are helping to offset the impacts of this year’s dry hydrology, exacerbated earlier this winter when pumping was restricted for a certain period of time to protect salmon and other fish species, leading to the loss of approximately 250,000 acre-feet of water for south-of-Delta CVP contractors.

The Bureau of Reclamation has released the final environmental documents for a nine-year annual transfer of settlement contract water between properties owned by Vista Verde farms within Westlands Water District.

The action covered by the Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact is a series of annual temporary water transfers during each of the next nine years (2012-2020). The volume to be transferred would be up to 1,140 acre-feet per year from property owned by Vista Verde Farms, south of Mendota near the intersection of California Avenue and State Route 33, to property owned by Vista Verde, near the interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 33.

This action will allow a continuation of transfers to existing crops that has taken place in most years since 2000.

The Final EA and FONSI were released for public comment from June 26 through July 11. No comments were received on the draft documents.

The Bureau of Reclamation has released for public review the draft environmental documents for a series of annual water exchange agreements with Donald J. Peracchi and his affiliates through February 2015.

Under the proposed annual exchange agreements, groundwater pumped annually into Mendota Pool, minus losses, would be used by Reclamation to offset existing Central Valley Project water contract obligations at the Mendota Pool.

Reclamation would then reduce CVP deliveries to the Mendota Pool by the quantity exchanged and make an equivalent amount of CVP water (up to 3,600 acre-feet per year) available for irrigation purposes to Donald J. Peracchi and affiliates’ lands in Westlands Water District via the San Luis Canal.

The Draft Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact (Draft EA/FONSI) were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and are available online at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=9750.

The Department of Water Resources on April 16 estimated it
will be able to deliver 60 percent of requested State Water Project water this year. This is up from the 50 percent delivery estimate — or allocation — announced on February 22.

Originally, DWR projected in November that it would be able to supply 60 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet of SWP water requested, but a dry December, January and February dropped that figure to 50 percent.

The increase is due to an unusually wet March and higher-than-average reservoir storage carried over from last winter.

“This is good news for our water supply as we approach summer’s peak-demand period,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “But we must remember that we still had a dry winter despite a partial recovery in March, and we need to be prepared for a potentially second consecutive dry year in 2013, when reservoir storage would be reduced.”
A 60 percent allocation is not unusually low.
Wet conditions last year allowed the SWP to deliver 80 percent of the slightly more
than 4 million acre-feet requested by the 29 public agencies that supply more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons of water, enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007. The last 100 percent allocation — difficult to achieve even in wet 2 years due to pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish — was in 2006.

Last month’s allocation-boosting storms came after unusually dry conditions up and down the state.

Much of California’s water comes from the mountainous country from Shasta Lake in the north to the American River in the south. DWR’s precipitation gages covering this area recorded an impressive 130 percent of average rainfall in October, but only 43 percent in November, four percent of average in December, 84 percent of average in January, and 38 percent of normal in February. March, however, came in
at 228 percent of normal.
Precipitation gages in the San Joaquin basin recorded125 percent of the average monthly precipitation for October, 32 percent for November, zero percent for December, 80 percent for January, and 35 percent for February. March recorded 110 percent of normal.

The mountain snowpack shows a north-to-south variance in this winter’s weather patterns. Water content in the statewide snowpack is only 68 percent of normal for the date, whereas the reading in the northern ranges is 101percent of normal.
Reservoir storage remains high, largely due to carryover from last winter.

Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal reservoir, is at 110 percent of average for the date (88 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity).

Lake Shasta north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet, also is at 110 percent of average (93 percent of capacity).

Thanks to improved precipitation in the Sacramento Valley and improved snowpack in the Northern Sierra, the Bureau of Reclamation is increasing the allocation for Central Valley Project Exchange and Settlement Contractors, wildlife refuges, agricultural and municipal and industrial water service contractors.

Precipitation in the Sacramento River Basin is currently 81 percent of the seasonal average to date, precipitation in the San Joaquin River Basin is 58 percent of the seasonal average to date, and the snow water content ranges from 81 percent of the April 1 average for the Northern Sierra to 32 percent for the Southern Sierra. Due to the improved hydrology since mid-March, combined with actions to improve water management throughout the CVP, Reclamation announces the following updated allocations based upon the 90-percent exceedence (dry future conditions) forecast:

North-of-Delta: • Agricultural and M&I water service contractors’ allocation has increased to 100 percent from the initial allocation of 30 percent for agricultural contractors and 75 percent of their historic use for M&I contractors of their contract supply of 782,740 acre-feet (includes American River M&I – 313,750 acre-feet, and Sacramento River M&I and Agriculture – 468,990 acre-feet).

• Sacramento River Settlement Contractors’ allocation has increased to 100 percent from the initial allocation of 75 percent of their contract supply of 2.1 MAF. These contractors receive their CVP water supply based upon pre-CVP held water rights, and the allocation is tied to pre-established Shasta inflow criteria.

• Wildlife refuges’ allocation has increased to 100 percent from the initial allocation of 75 percent of their Level 2 contract supply of 151,250 acre-feet. Refuge water allocations are also based upon Shasta inflow criteria.

South-of-Delta: • Agricultural water service contractors’ allocation has increased to 40 percent from the initial allocation of 30 percent of their contract supply of 1.9 MAF.

• M&I water service contractors’ allocation remains unchanged at 75 percent of their historic use. The allocations may be adjusted to meet public health and safety needs.

• The allocation for San Joaquin River Exchange and Settlement Contractors has increased to 100 percent of their contract supply of 875,000 acre-feet from their initial allocation of 75 percent. These contractors receive their CVP water supply based upon pre-CVP held water rights, and the allocation is tied to Shasta inflow criteria.

• Wildlife refuges’ allocation (Level 2) has increased to 100 percent from the initial allocation of 75 percent of their contract supply of 271,000 acre-feet. The refuges’ allocation is based upon Shasta inflow criteria.

Other: • Friant Division contractors’ water supply is delivered from Millerton Reservoir on the upper San Joaquin River. The first 800,000 acre-feet of water supply is considered Class 1; any remaining water is considered Class 2. The Friant Division water supply allocation has increased to 45 percent from the initial allocation of 35 percent of Class 1 and Class 2 remains unchanged at zero percent of the contracted supply of 1.4 MAF.

• There is no change to the 100 percent allocation for Eastside water service contractors (Central San Joaquin Water Conservancy District and Stockton East Water District), whose water supplies are delivered from New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River; they are allocated their full contract supply of 155,000 acre-feet.

• Contra Costa Water District’s allocation has increased to 100 percent from the initial allocation of 75 percent of their historic use.

Reclamation has developed a series of actions in the CVP Water Plan 2012 to help support water management efforts this year. The plan, available at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/pa/water, identifies actions related to Joint Point of Diversion, Exchange Contractors’ transfers, and California Aqueduct/Delta-Mendota Canal Intertie operations. Any of these actions may offer opportunities to better manage critical water supplies.

Changes to hydrology and opportunities to exercise operational flexibility of the CVP will influence allocations during the remainder of the water year. Reclamation is monitoring the hydrologic and operating conditions and working closely with local, state and federal partners to take immediate advantage of any opportunities to increase CVP allocations. Water supply updates will be made as appropriate and posted at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/pa/water.

The Bureau of Reclamation on March 28 said that public scoping meetings will be held to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Remanded Biological Opinions on the Coordinated Long-term Operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project. A Notice of Intent to prepare the EIS and conduct public scoping meetings was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, March 28, 2012. This EIS will be developed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California remanded portions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service BOs to their respective agencies. This EIS responds to the District Court’s order that Reclamation analyze and disclose, in accordance with NEPA, the potential impacts of implementing the Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives developed pursuant to the remanded USFWS and NMFS BOs.

Four public scoping meetings to solicit input on issues and alternatives to be addressed in the EIS are scheduled to be held:

• Wednesday, April 25, 6-8 p.m.-Madera County Main Library, Blanche Galloway Room, 121 North G Street, Madera, CA 93637

• Thursday, April 26, 6-8 p.m.-South Coast Air Quality Management District, Room CC6, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765

• Wednesday, May 2, 2-4 p.m.-John E. Moss Federal Building, Stanford Room, 650 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, CA 95814

• Thursday, May 3, 6-8 p.m.-Yuba County Government Center, Board of Supervisors Chambers, 915 Eighth Street, Marysville, CA 95901

The Bureau of Reclamation has released the draft environmental documents for approval of 2-year Exchange Agreements and/or 2-year Warren Act contracts for Central Valley Project contractors in the Delta Division and San Luis Unit.

The term of the agreements or contracts would be March 2012 through February 2013 for pumping and conveyance and March 2012 through February 2014 for storage in San Luis Reservoir and for conveyance from the reservoir. The quantity of groundwater pumped into the Delta-Mendota Canal would not exceed a combined total of 50,000 acre-feet. The conveyance and storage of non-CVP water in CVP facilities would be subject to available capacity.

Written comments on the Draft Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the proposed actions must be received by close of business Wednesday March 21, and should be sent to Chuck Siek, Bureau of Reclamation, South-Central California Area Office, 1243 N Street, Fresno, CA 93721. Comments may also be faxed to Mr. Siek at 559-487-5397 or e-mailed to csiek@usbr.gov.

The U.S. House moved closer in late February toward passage of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act (H.R. 1837), but the White House said that it would be vetoed if it reaches the president’s desk.

The measure, opposed by both California senators and a number of the state’s U.S. representatives, would pre-empt some state state law on waters in the Sacramento River and San Joaquin Valley. It has been called by opponents the “State Water Rights Repeal Act.”

The White House said the measure:

H.R. 1837 would undermine five years of collaboration between local, State, and Federal stakeholders to develop the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. It would codify 20-year old, outdated science as the basis for managing California’s water resources, resulting in inequitable treatment of one group of water users over another. And, contrary to 100 years of reclamation law that exhibits congressional deference to State water law, the bill would preempt California water law.

The bill also would reject the long-standing principle that beneficiaries should pay both the cost of developing water supplies and of mitigating any resulting development impacts, and would exacerbate current water shortages by repealing water pricing reforms that provide incentives for contractors to conserve water supplies.

Finally, H.R. 1837 would repeal the San Joaquin River Settlement Agreement, which the Congress enacted to resolve 18 years of contentious litigation. Repeal of the settlement agreement would likely result in the resumption of costly litigation, creating an uncertain future for river restoration and water delivery operations for all water users on the San Joaquin River.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a blog post that “This bill would devastate California’s rivers, the Bay-Delta estuary, our fisheries and wildlife, and the jobs and communities that depend on their health. The legislation is opposed by the State of California, California’s two Senators, more than 10 members of the state’s House delegation, the leaders of both state legislative houses, and literally hundreds of commercial and recreational fishing associations, environmental groups, water districts, local governments, and farmers.”